P34W v3 First look, impressions and tests - a Pretty Little Beast

Edit:
- Pleased the grammar nazis
- Added notes on adapter compatibility with Razer
- Slightly more description on monitor quality
- Slightly more description on keyboard feel
- Added impressions on portability
- Added advice on battery saving

What’s the biggest fear of a gaming laptop? Being an outdated one . I figured it’s time to search for something new as my Y580 is reaching 2 years old.

And what a lucky time to shop for gaming notebooks. We are seeing some of the brightest years in this market as hardware specs began to challenge the limits of the form factor. With Acer, HP and Lenovo rolling out their portable 15.6” models, gaming on a lightweight-class is a dream no more.

Out of all of them though, the P34W from Gigabyte caught my eye from day 1. I mean, who can resist a 14” form factor with a freaking 970M on a 1.71kg package?


1. To shop

I don’t have to tell you how brutal Hong Kong distributors are when it comes to notebook pricing. A 10-20% markup (from US prices) is almost a norm. Since the birth of the P series I’ve never seen a model sold here, not sure if Gigabyte is unpopular or the line isn’t profitable, I resorted to ordering from TaoBao.

The seller, G+, from GuangDong is quite nice and sincere towards my queries. I would have never known that this batch is actually shipped to China through HK customs! Oh the irony.

Despite the hefty price tag at ￥11999(~1920 USD), I thought it was worth it(And still think so), so the trigger was pulled. They managed to ship in just 3 days, and with me taking it home that’s 4.

Specs:
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro
CPI: 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-4720HQ (2.6GHz-3.6GHz)
Display: 14" Full HD 1920x1080 hi-Viewing angle LCD
Memory: 8GB DDRIIIL 1600, 2 slots(Max 16GB)
Chipset: Intel® HM87
Display Adapter: Intel® HD Graphics 4600
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M GDDR5 3GB Discrete Graphics, NVIDIA® Optimus™ supported
Storage: 128 mSATA SSD + 1TB 2.5" 5400RPM
Keyboard: 2-stage back-lit keyboard
Optical Drive: N/A
I/O: USB(3.0)*4, HDMI, D-sub, RJ45, Headphone/Microphone jack, SD card reader, A/C in
Sound: 1.5 W Speaker*2, Integrated Dual mic, Dolby Digital Plus™ Home Theater
LAN: 10/100/1000 Ethernet
WLAN: 802.11ac/b/g/n
Bluetooth: Integrated V4.0
Camera: HD Camera
Security: Kensington Lock
Battery: Li-polymer, 15.2V, 61.25Wh
Dimensions: 340(W) x 239(D) x 20.9(H) mm
Weight: ~1.80kg (w/ Battery, m-SSD, HDD)

2. Looks
(Note: 1 or 2 pics are missed from the OP in hkepc, due to the 20 pic limit here, check it all out in http://imgur.com/a/5khqs and http://imgur.com/a/dr9aS)

The whole package… Not too big TBH

3 gifts: Mouse, Keyboard cover, and speakers… the stock mouse and mousepad? Not here, weird.

Laptop package, looks thin.


And the reveal. It’s smaller and lighter than I expected. But looks can be deceiving.


Thin profile at about an inch.


The rear(bottom?). Note the intakes on the two sides. The fans would instantly kick in if I blocked them… not ideal for bed use.


Easy access for the memory, by just unscrewing the center screw. The config I had is maxed out at 2x8GB.


3. Hardware

a. Build & Accessories

The finish is actually nice looking and uniform. The bottom has a slightly lighter colour than the upper part. It is sanded and have a cool touch to it, but not the Macbook chills you get from aluminium. To guess, I’m heavily inclined on a plastic w/ metal finish, 95% sure after comparing it to the Define R4 front panel. It is however VERY easily smeared so for sweaty hands like mine it’s bad. The included keyboard cloth would help to but a limited degree.

The seam between the top and bottom halves are fitter, a lesson learnt from v2 I guess. Keyboard and monitors does not present flex or sag when pressed by hand.

The chassis is supported by numerous, but short rubber feets. See why those fans kick in now?

The pleather sleeve is nice-looking and fits tight… maybe too tight. When in place, the upper side has a few millimeter stuck out so you can’t place the cover to meet the Velcro pads exactly. I'm positive it can resist small bumps and scratches though.


A 19.2V, 7.7A 150W adapter, well what do I expect? Maxwell efficiency can only carry you so far. It is not light, compared to Razer’s, but nevertheless thin. I don't expect Razer's port could fit the A/C in without some kind of adapter.


b. Monitor

A 1080p IPS panel, pretty much sufficient ppi for a 14”, plus no hassle for scaling and no worries for extra battery drain. The brightness is quite okay even under sunlight, while the lowest setting remains comfortable at dark. The contrast is fair considering the panel type, and viewing angles are great. Colours look accurate enough to my liking, that is all I can describe with my non-existent media editing background.

The hinges are sturdy but does not lift the notebook up if turned.

c. Speakers & sound card

Well, the speakers are the weak link on the chain, to say the least. Mids are recessed and lows are almost muted, resulting in a thin and bright signature. Soundstage is just okay. It is loud though, I’ll give them that.

The Realtek sound card is paired with Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater, with the Music preset bring surprisingly good at breathing life into your headphones by adding some more bass and mids. Interestingly, I use that to play movies and it’s enjoyable on my K712 un-amped.

d. Keyboard, touchpad

A chiclet (?) style keyboard with 2-stage backlight, nuff’ said. Key separation are pretty good and each of them are large enough for my hands. They also feel tactile enough and with good travel, but mind you I’d be okay with anything so long it does not scream mushy.
The keyboard hints that it’s not some regular ultrabook-for-your-glorious-microsoft-word by bolding the WASD keys. I like that. (I laughed when my ‘non-tech savvy’ friends said it has a Macbook vibe to it). It could use some G keys though. On a side note, the arrows keys are placed a bit weirdly.


Touchpad is split into touch and left and right keys that are satisfying to click. It is distinctive from the Macbook touchpads in that you can’t press the pad, but I see it as a plus as I cannot count how many times a misclick was registered with me putting too much pressure beside the palm rest while gaming.

The palm rest is large enough for my hands (21cm span) to rest and type on quite comfortably, with room to spare. The cooling system resides at the far side of the chassis so naturally I find the rests cool enough. Keyboard could get warm during gaming but that's just around the center position where most keys are not used.


e. Connectivity

4 USB 3.0 ports around the chassis, which seems good at first glance but I wondered about compatibility. There is a highlighted one with higher max current to charge your phone. Two on the right is separated by the SD card reader, giving you more space for wide drives. I wish every port come with a rubber cover though.

Again, another thing that subtly indicates gaming is the R/J45 LAN port – I mean, by now it doesn’t take an avid gamer to notice what’s the real deal without the whole thing looking like a 12-year old toy. That was where the AORUS series crossed my line.


The wireless card supports a/b/g/n/ac, and with my 100M network downloading a steam game I reached 9.2MB/s max, which I believe could go even higher.

The HDMI and VGA ports makes it easy for business guys or students for a presentation. They are on opposite sides so no port clashing if you want a multi-output setup.

f. Others

One nifty thing with the LED indicator lights below the touchpad is, when you want to check the remaining juice while the laptop is off, right click the touchpad, and out of 5 lights, some will be lit depending on the battery level.

Below shows a 50-70% charged battery.


The On button looks better than it works; sometimes it took me two clicks to let it register before it can start, also needs more strength to press it than I expected. Maybe it is just not clicky enough.

The touchpad also inherits the strength problem. I’d appreciate more sensitive detection upon taps.

The SmartManager features a Win lock, but I use metro a lot so I tend to use it only while gaming (if I remember).

Dual mics and a cam on the top, standard fare for the cam, have not tested the mic. I believe you can tinker the gain/NC settings on the Realtek software.

4. Software & Performance

There isn’t a lot that came with the stock software:

1. SmartManager v3, akin to a panel for you to control loudness, brightness, Bluetooth, win key locks, and fan profile. No custom fan profile though, aside from ‘stealth’, ‘auto’ and ‘max’

2. ShowSw, for turning off (seriously?), and rebooting into BIOS.


3. A backup software to make a recovery USB stick, applicable to Win 7 only.

4. LAN Optimizer

5. Cyberlink PowerDVD 10, nice addition there.


Performance tests:
wPrime 32 – 8.5s

CrystalDiskMark @500MB – Normal 4K R/W levels for a 128GB

PCMark 8 Home

PCMark 8 Work

3DMark – Great results, places itself around a normal desktop gaming PC!


Temps:

Forgot to cap XTU stress tests, but the CPU-only test maxed out at 85 degrees and averaged 81 degrees. On version 5.1.1, there wasn’t a noticeable improvement even when I lowered the dynamic CPU voltage to -70 mV. Any further and stability in gaming is disturbed, but CPU-only stresses would yield max undervolt at -100mV.

On gaming, the CPU maxed at 85 degrees and the GPU 74 degrees@1038MHz. Observing XTU for a while, I found out the CPU throttled to 2.87GHz at 3 cores active.

Sound:

For a laptop of this size expect fans to get loud. The fans seem to adjust itself around 5 speeds, with the 2nd gear being on normal use, 3rd gear on videos and maybe game startups, and 4th gear on loads. It rarely kicked into the 5th gear unless I'm running PCMark or 3DMark combined tests.

The stealth fan profile do help by lowering each by one level at the cost of temperature. I never dared using full speed.

All testing done at 14 degrees ambient and AUTO fan profile.

Battery:

Not the strongest in its league. Expect 4.5-5.5 hours of use at <50% brightness with wifi off. I'd advise going into great lengths ensuring the lowest battery drain by tinkering with max CPU usage, undervolting, and probably optimizing windows by disabling visual features, background programs and the like.

As it is equipped with an SSD, I don't mind letting it hibernate, sacrificing a few seconds' boot time for more juice as opposed to sleeping.

Portability:

At barely an inch think this thing is a breeze to carry. An hour of one-hand holding with the sleeve on on transit results in minimal strain to the wrists and elbows.
Bringing the full gear on a backpack is not too heavy to boot with but I usually just leave the adapter inside and hand-carry the notebook.
The abundance of rubber feet is a godsend when using them in lecture theatres with ridiculously small tables.

7. Conclusion

The Good:

14” notebook with by-far the highest perf/kg ratio, surpassing even 15.6” alternatives.

Just the right ppi at 1080p.

Backlit keyboard and a satisfying touchpad.

Absence of bloatware.

Nice I/O layout, geared towards games and work alike.

Subtle and pretty look, classy finish.

Premium-feeling sleeve.


The Bad:

Freaking lipophilic finish, arrrggghh!

Weird arrow keys.

No G keys.

Awful speakers.


The Ugly:

You can’t defy the laws of physics: It’s going to be flarkin’ hot pumping 150W into this volume.


The verdict:

Very nice machine that stands out in performance but stays cool on the looks. Not on the temps though.

 

Nice review. You forgot to mention the lack of a display port and being replaced for vga

 

Thank you for the review, I ordered one as well and will be receiving it tomorrow from HIDEvolution. I had them removed the factory RAM and HDD and will be putting in a pair of 8GB Corsair DDR3-1600 RAM and a 512 GB Plextor M5 Pro SSD.

That's actually not bad, especially the gaming temperatures. I would assume it may be closer to 90C/80C in warmer climates or summertime?

 

Ops good call. I guess that totally flew over my head since I'm convinced I won't be in the market for UHD throughout the life of this notebook. Not until dem UHD panels and projectors are more commonplace.

 

I can't help but be OCD about temps ever since I got my hands on both a Y580 and Y480, with the latter constantly BSODing on a Sandy i7, and the former absolutely fine on the same specs.

If you are to bear with a humid 35C in summer Hong Kong, you'll make sure your workhorse does too.

 

UHD is nice but my concern is outputting to a 120hz+ monitor @ 1080p which you can't do over HDMI for most things. I think this is HDMI 1.4 which does support it but very few monitors actually do.

 

That's understandable, are you planning on replacing the factory thermal compound with something like Arctic Silver 5 or IC Diamond? From some of the reviews on the previous generation of the P34, replacing that factory compound lowers the CPU/GPU temperatures by about 5C. Every little bit helps.

 

Fair point. We could always stay optimistic though! Worst case, we don't get 120Hz support, but mobile GSync is confirmed, thus support on this machine is a possibility. That'd be good enough compromise for me personally.

 

Very, very likely. Seeing how similiar in construction are the v2 and the v3, I don't find it potentially hard to replace (repaste ) it with my Noctua NT-H1, which had worked wonders on my friend's ye olde' Toshiba.

 

I'm wondering if this laptop has a a similar bend issue as the P35X? Can you take a pic like this?

 

Nice review very detailed how about comparing it to aorus x3 v3 gaming wise etc.

 

Thanks for the review! I really think I'm going to take that one to replace my W110er

Now pardon my lack of knowledge, but what do you mean by G keys? '.'...

 

I can't see any visible hogging around where I tried to flex. Don't consider me the strongest one there is though...

Honestly I don't find it surprising that it happened on the 35X - It has a wider span, and an obvious weakpoint around midspan where the DVD (HDD?) drive resides as a separate body. With a similiar thickness, twisting it on the end would definitely induce more bending than a shorter 14" with a relatively uniform body.
(studying structural engineering actually has perks? whaaaa... )

Seriously though, is that pic you posted a permanent damage (plastic) or recoverable (elastic)? 'cuz that would explain why a polymer casing is a better design decision.

Anyway it should be a non-issue on this one.

 

Exactly this
Moar shortcut keyz fer mah gaemz...

 

Thank you for the thorough review. It really is a nice bit of power in a tiny little package.

 

Like you guys, I have no access to the AORUS line for IRL testing, so here's my 2c on why I think the P34W is a superior proposition to me:

Note: this is a comparison to X3+ v2 as v3 is not yet accessible in the mainland. Consider anything below void for the X3+ v3. Also, looks are always subjective.

1. The screen estate of P34W is slightly higher but 70g lighter. 10Wh more on the battery is nice but then the processor is hotter too.
2. G-key is a plus but not an absolute necessity for me; I've enough on my mouse.
3. The additional processing power of the + does not translate well into gaming, in fact let me raise a question: Is throttling alleviated/the same/worse on the X3+ with the processor spitting out more watts to the shared heatpipes?
4. No single mobile chip to date is able to push AAA games at X3+ native res without compromising details.
5. The P34W directly competes with the X3+ in sheet without needing to shell out another 400USD.
6. I am 21 and I don't want to pull out an edgy notebookz to show how l33t my 360n0sc0pin skillz are at school.

 

Hi everyone and thank you so much for your translation @fanchiuho !!!

You did a really good job on this review with well explained details. As you might notice, some gaming test and more accurate info on your tests will be asked from some of the geekiest friends around this forum. You take about downloading on steam, and ingame test would be much appreciate (even two games, one with resolution, and one with a classic MOBA) But for me it is already a lot !!!

For now I don't have any news on mine, so I will go do some shovelling (west europe is like a wide snow park) to drain a part of my frustration, and also get to my car !

Thanks again for this fast work, please do enjoy your laptop

 

Oh am I excited to fiddle with new toys

For OC tests which some of you might be wondering, well I don't feel comfortable yet with this machine in particular, until I repaste the chips.

I will do gaming tests as I play along my very limited steam library (PAYDAY2, Marvel Heroes '15, and probably Left 4 Dead 2). I wonder if ShadowPlay shows the framerate appropiately for demonstration's sake...

Also shoutout to all geekier bros here, is there any logging tool that you usually see people use? I myself am also interested on the temperature profile of this machine under different games.

 

How is the keyboard on this? I consider the keyboard on my P34G v1 the weak point - I had to turn the repeat delay way up to prevent double characters on some keys.

 

AFAIK Gsync requires Displayport to function.

 

Okay, that's what I thought, thanks! Did you have any time to play a bit with it? Please let us know how this little beast behave when gaming.

 

Mine came in and I spent some time checking the fan and temperatures. I removed the factory thermal compound and used IC Diamond 7.

Test Variables
Thermal Compound: IC Diamond 7
Ambient Temperature: 25C
Laptop Setup: System sitting on glass table, running off of AC adapter, no base cooler. No Gigabyte Software/Utility.

Fan Speed Grades: Off, Low, Medium, High, Max

CPU Load (Prime 95, Max Heat Settings)



Observation: Prime95 ran eight individual threads for thirty minutes, kept the CPU load at 100% load. The CPU showed no signs of down clocking and kept the TurboBoost speed to 2..8-2.9 GHz at all times.
Temperatures: CPU briefly touched 80C a few times (When changing Lehmer Iterations), otherwise stayed consistently at around 75C.
Fan Behavior: System fan stayed at medium speed throughout test. Fan speed decreased from Medium to Low in 22 seconds, and from Low to Stop in 133 seconds. Total time for fan to stop after halting process: 155 seconds.

GPU Load (FurMark @ 1024 x 768 with 8x MSAA)



Observation: FurMark ran for thirty minutes, kept the GPU load at 100% load. The CPU initially ran at 3.6 GHz for 114 seconds, 3.5 GHz for 182 seconds, and stayed at 3.2 GHz - 3.3 GHz for the remainder of the test. GPU core clock speed stayed at 1038 MHz for the entire test. Neither showed sudden drastic of clock speed. FurMark frame rate stayed consistently at 23-24 FPS.
Temperatures: CPU typically stayed in the 80C - 85C range, attempts to increase clock speed to 3.3 GHz until it hits 90C, then drops back in the 3.2 GHz range. It took 177 seconds for the GPU to reach 80C, and stayed in the 81 - 82C range for the remaining time.
Fan Behavior: System fan immediately jumped to medium speed when test started, took 66 seconds before increasing to high and 41 seconds to reach maximum. Fan speed stayed constantly at maximum speed for the remainder of test. Fan speed decreased from Maximum to High in 14 seconds, from High to Medium in 24 seconds, from Medium to Low in 50 seconds and finally stopping 261 seconds afterwards. Total time for fan to stop after halting test: 349 seconds.

With that said, I found the Gigabyte P34W V3's fan to be very similar to the Retina Macbook Pro with the GT 750M in terms of profile and sound. While it is expectedly loud when pushed hard, the fan did not exhibit any high pitch squeal or inconsistent profile switching through the test.

I plan to play Guild Wars 2 with maximum details and no anti-aliasing for the next 3-4 hours, will report back if there are any performance issues or other intriguing observations.

 

Very good temperature there for a thin, light, and powerful laptop.
Can't wait to get mine in a day or 2.

Edit :
Can anyone of you do a simple 3DMark 11 and 13 test?
Easier to compare with other laptop.

Thanks.

 

Almost four hours of Guild Wars 2, no problems here. Fan stayed mostly at high speed, no annoying fan speed stepping. Frame rate stayed at about 70-80 FPS. It's a keeper.

I did install Gigabyte's Smart Manager and played with the fan profiles to find the following:



Stealth doesn't disable the fan completely, and if you attempt to play games under this profile, it's going to be roughly 50% performance penalty. I find it interesting that the GPU still had Boost regardless of profile but the VRAM speed got cut down to a fourth only in Stealth. If you're getting suspiciously low frame rate in newer games, make sure you're not under this profile.

Note: If you do not install Gigabyte Smart Manager, the system seems to default to Auto-Low by default.

 

Looks consistent with my experience so far, in games the fans ramp up to the second-highest speed usually.

I use stealth mostly for low-loading work to reduce battery drain

 

Thank you @Micaiah for adding your results !

Can you and @fanchiuho share, which version of drivers did you used ? did you start from the stock version you received ? or did you updated before testing ?

Thanks in advance !

 

Thanks guys for your input.
Do you know why the max CPU speed is only 3.2? Have you tried undervolting?

 

Are you asking for a full list of drivers? I do believe I used all stock drivers to test this out, except the 970M's for obvious reasons. In fact nothing would be updated without you going to the Gigabyte update app and asking it to do so.

 

This isn't spec'd much different than the Aorus. Why are the Fire Strike scores so low? Yes you do have 3GB vram versus 6GB but that doesn't excuse the scores being THAT low. My Razer Blade with an 870M was getting higher scores.

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3929845 Blade
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5738606? Aorus

Am I missing something?

 

Your tests are in normal Firestrike, while Micaiah's results are in Firestrike Extreme. Firestrike extreme are thought than the normal version, therefore the lower scores. The results he got in extreme are actually really good, and definitely acceptable. If you look at the original post you can see the normal Firestrike scores.

I do have another question though, how is the material use on the laptop? Is it just the armrest which is metal or is it the whole laptop? I have to say I much prefer metal over plastic because of the premium feel, even though it might not be as sturdy.

Thanks in advantage

Edit: Fixed an autocorrect error

 

I missed the "Extreme" part

 

Like I said in 3a., it is essentially a two-piece construction if you exclude the plastic base for the keyboard area. I'm 95% positive the chassis is made of plastic but with a metal-like finish, giving it that slightly cool and machined/brushed touch to it, but at the same time would get warm when there is heat.

If you have ever heard of the Fractal Design Define computer cases then you'll know exactly how that feels, that front panel is the closest thing at hand I can compare to this notebook.

So no it's not metal, but it sure aren't the plastic you'd see in Clevos either. Did it steered away from the premium feel? Not in any significant way, objectively. So it'd depends on how you feel . Honestly though, take these as a grain of salt. After all aluminium conducts heat well and this thing could very well be spitting out enough of it that skewed my senses...

 

Go game on a Razer Blade for 15 minutes and your fingers will burn. 130f+ in some spots.

 

OK, thanks for the fast answer. I was hoping it would be mostly metal, but it's completely fine with that too. I'm just happy that it isn't like the Clevos like you stated

 

very nice update good temps i might change my paste on my aorus x3 v3

 

Got mine today.
Busy migrating OS and Data.

Just got to test 3DMark13.
The CPU seems to limit itself to a max of 91c.
I got 91c on CPU and 84c on GPU.
But after disabling CPU turbo boost, I got 89c on CPU and 86c on GPU. Scores seems to be higher as well.

My ambient is quite high here in Malaysia. Probably around 28c

 

HIDevolution removed the factory drives and RAM from mine to lower the cost as I already had better parts readily available.

I am using an fresh copy of Windows 8.1, and initially was using Gigabyte's factory 344.91 drivers. Unfortunately Guild Wars 2 threw some '3D Output Device Not Found' error, and I ended up using the 347.25 drivers directly from nVidia's website to fix the issue. All the tests I posted was using the original Gigabyte drivers.

Two reasons for this would be the BIOS enforcing the processor's thermal design power specification and thermal management. The 4720HQ was designed to work within a 47W limit to prevent excessive power draw and heat, for the CPU to run all cores at its specified 3.6 GHz TurboBoost speed, it would have to surpass this barrier and be allowed to work within about 60-65W. Intel designed their processors to adjust its TurboBoost clock accordingly based on load to provide the best performance while keeping these two concerns in check. As someone noted earlier, the CPU seems to be capped at 90C - 91C, as based on my observation, the CPU instantly drops speed as soon as any of the cores hit this threshold.

Most enthusiast level desktop motherboards will allow the end user to enable 'Core Ratio/Multiplier Lock', which forces all cores on the CPU to run at the exact same speed as the first core with TurboBoost, but understandably desktops do not have the same cooling constraints as a laptop.

As fanchiuho stated, it's mostly plastic with only the LCD lid being metal. I used to own a Clevo W230SS, and personally I did not like the grainy texture on the bottom base of that notebook. For this kind of notebook, you don't want an aluminum palm rest because it will conduct heat and make prolonged gaming sessions with the laptop's keyboard uncomfortable.

 

@fanchiuho , your answer about drivers is good enough from me, as with new model I always wait a bit to update it (except for the GPU ).

@Micaiah , thanks for those detailed infos and explanations. It is always easier to understand when it is well explained !

@Amal77 , glad to know that you have received your precious ! thanks for adding your temps.
How did you stop turbo boost, with XTU going on 99% for the CPU ? or by another method ?
Also would you please share your impressions of the "touch" of this laptop ?

Finally can anyone make a guide on how to repaste the GPU (and maybe the CPU) for this model ? maybe even a video I never try it so I am a bit "cold" about it, even more on my new (and still not there) laptop... but i might also keep it like that, as I won't push it too far for now ...

Thanks for sharing your infos !

 

You can follow this video, he's doing it on the previous version of the Gigabyte P34 but the steps and procedures are exactly the same.

 

Yes I understand all that, but the 4720HQ is designed to run 4 cores at 3.4GHz. It can either be a bios limit or thermal throttling or more commonly power throttling and I would like to know which of the three is. In the two latter cases undervolting would help. Thanks

 

Yep I was going to link that i video it's exactly the same internal only last gen v2

 

I limit it at the power options to 99%.

Btw, it was throttling whenever it reaches 91c, that's why I'm getting a lower 3DMark score.

But after I've updated the BIOS to the latest one, now the CPU can go up to 96c on turbo boost.
Quite hot IMHO. But I'm glad they increase the temp limit. Better than throttling.
Now I'm getting a normal score again on 3Dmark13 even with turbo boost enabled.
GPU is still maxed at 86c on 3Dmark13.
Highest I've tried is on furmark, which is 88c on GPU.

I don't understand about "touch" you were referring to.
You mean the keyboard area during gaming/test?
It doesn't feel hot at all.

 

@Micaiah thanks for the video, i think i have seen it before, but now I know where I am sure to find it !

I was refering to the feeling that give the laptop, is it as flexible as the aorus X3+V3 (thanks to @LVNeptune review). Do you see the point on the screen appearing when you push the back of th screen ? As i will move it a lot, I am a bit scared of smalls scratchs on the outside.

Thanks for those fast answers !

 

Whelp, time to update the stuff huh?

I too am confused about the touch. If you are referring to the construction of the laptop, then there shouldn't be any problems with monitor flexing or flexing in general. I think the finish is prone to small scratches though, hence the sleeve.

 

I am very close in pulling the trigger at GenTech for this mtfk..... enough of poisoning already..

Couple of questions on storage:

(1) From spending and performance point of view, should I configure with a single big mSATA and nothing on SATA or spread them across mSATA and SATA (ie 1 x 500 GB mSATA vs 1 x 250 GB mSATA and 1 x 250 GB SATA)? I noticed from the configurator that mSATA drive is cheaper and if there's no performance difference, why would anyone split their SSDs?

(2) Does HDD add noticeable weight, heat and power consumption to the system against SSD?

(3) How much storage should I get if I am using it only for gaming (eg Witcher 3 etc). I am planning to save all my media files to a separate portable HDD.

Am a newbie here and this will be my first gaming laptop. Was very excited when Razer launched its 970m Blade, but memory is set at 8GB, storage locked at 256GB (unknown brand), no IC pasting and that freaking price simply for the body... just don't quite cut it for me.

 

I went for a 256GB mSATA SSD, and a Western Digital Black2Dual (120GB SSD+1TB HDD). If you are talking about having two separate SSDs, I would definitely recommend going for one large mSATA, instead of splitting it. Simply due to the possibility of upgrading.

The HDD definitely adds noise, some heat and some power consumption. The noise is my main problem, as the heat draw is only around 5-10W for 2.5'' HDDs. The spinup of the HDD almost drove me crazy, so I'll only have content I rarely access on it.

Can't wait to get my laptop, due for shipping 13.02 from computeruniverse.net

 

I read your battery summary, but do you think the P34w is good enough for a student? I will mostly be browsing the Web and using office programs.

Thanks in advantage again

 

Does any one know for sure the 1tb masts is supported? They say 512 of the website but typically. Larger does tend to work than the max listed. And I'm sure some usa sellers are selling customisations with it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Can someone who owns this laptop tell me what's the screen make and model? Run HWinfo64 and it will tell you this..

 

I'd like to know this as well. Also, what speed does the CPU run at when running on battery? Is the CPU downclocked even when running on the high performance power setting?